Legislative leaders pointed fingers in the wake of Friday's Kansas Supreme Court decision on school finance, with each blaming the other party for the litigation.

Meanwhile, Democrats and Republicans offered few plans for complying with the court's order and articulated vastly different interpretations of how compliance might look.

House Minority Leader Paul Davis, D-Lawrence, blamed his presumptive opponent in the November election, Republican Gov. Sam Brownback, for the court's finding that state funding for K-12 was unconstitutionally unequal.

Brownback, while acknowledging the inequalities, pinned the blame on his Democratic predecessor, Mark Parkinson.

"We have this equity problem created by a prior administration," Brownback said. "But we will work to address that, and we will work to fix it."

The parameters of that legislative fix were hazy, at best, Friday.

Democratic leaders interpreted the court's decision as a call to immediately fund two equalization pots: one for capital outlay and another for local property taxes.

They viewed that appropriation, estimated at $129 million under current law, as something of a down payment on further school funding increases likely to be ordered when a lower court addresses the "adequacy" question that the Supreme Court remanded back to it.

But Brownback was flanked by Republican House and Senate leaders and Republican Attorney General Derek Schmidt, who described the decision as a sea change that wipes out all prior school finance precedent because it focused on student outcomes rather than mandating a firm dollar amount to be appropriated.

Even on the equalization piece, Republican leaders said the high court left the door open for legislators to provide equity in other ways that could cost less than funding the current formula, or cost nothing at all.

"We're still analyzing the actual language in this case as to what 'equitable' means," said Senate President Susan Wagle, R-Wichita, adding that attorneys will be looking at the decision throughout the weekend. "There will be a lot of different ways to solve it. Different weightings that can be moved around, we can put new money in the formula — I'm sure we will — but we have a lot of options on the table the way this decision came down."

House Speaker Ray Merrick, R-Stilwell, also said it was time to evaluate options.

"We now know what the decision is," Merrick said. "We know what the parameters are. Now we can start working on solutions and everything's wide open."

Brownback said the Legislature's options don't include revising the income tax cuts passed the last two sessions.

"We need this tax structure so we can grow," Brownback said.

Davis said the state's school funding woes could have been solved if not for the "reckless tax plan," but he stopped short Friday of saying the cuts should be repealed.

Davis said he and Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, D-Topeka, offered a plan to increase school funding at the beginning of the 2012 session, before the tax cuts.

"Gov. Brownback rejected it," Davis said. "There is a stark difference between the governor and I. I have consistently supported investing in our schools and provided a real solution to do just that."

The plan Hensley and Davis unveiled at Loman Hill Elementary School in 2012 would have cut into state reserves to incrementally increase base state aid per pupil to a rate mandated by the Kansas Supreme Court in an earlier school finance decision.

It also would have provided modest property tax relief.

Brownback and the Legislature's Republican leaders ignored it in favor of much larger income tax cuts.

When asked Friday if those cuts will need to be repealed, Davis said "there are going to be plans offered," but declined to give specifics.

When asked about previous Democratic governors’ failure to meet the court-mandated, per-pupil spending, Davis said there was a plan in place but the Great Recession scuttled it.

Hensley said "the Legislature is going to have to come to grips at some point with what the ramifications were of those tax cuts," but the full reckoning is likely to be delayed.

Hensley said the Supreme Court's decision to send the question of adequate base state aid per pupil back to the lower court to apply a different standard will likely lead to another appeal by the state after the court applies that standard.

He said the court's finding that the state hasn’t met its constitutional duty to provide equity among wealthy and less wealthy districts — and it must do so by July 1 — should provide clarity to what has been a thorny debate.

"Those are some of the most difficult issues for the Legislature to reach some compromise and consensus on," Hensley said. "They historically have been. I hope that we can resolve these inequities in order to help poorer school districts in Kansas."

Hensley, who teaches in Topeka Unified School District 501, said that district would be among those that benefit, along with such districts as Wichita, Emporia and Garden City.

Hensley said the state would be able to cover the $129 million this year with its ending balances if the Legislature signs off.

Davis said he "sincerely hopes" there will be enough Republican votes to pay the equalization before the July 1 deadline.

"I think the people of Kansas want the Legislature to stop playing games with this, they want the governor to stop making excuses, and they want to fund our schools," Davis said.

House Majority Leader Jene Vickrey, R-Louisburg, said there is broad agreement within his party and throughout the state with the philosophy of educational equality. The challenge, he said, is achieving it.

"That's our job," Vickrey said. "We will be working on how to get there."